Miguel Cotto finishes with a loss but departs a legend. Despite losing the final fight of his storied career at the weekend, Miguel Cotto can depart the scene with his head held high. The Puerto Rican brawler never ducked a fight over the course of almost 50 professional bouts and despite coming up short against arguably his three biggest opponents - Manny Pacquiao, Floyd Mayweather and Saul Alvarez - his legacy will endure.
At one stage, he had built up a record of which included handing Carlos Maussa, Kelson Pinto, Ricardo Torres, Paulie Malignaggi and Carlos Quintana their first professional losses. Margarito handed Cotto his first loss in July in a blood-soaked affair which left him battered to a pulp in the eleventh round. He took a knee mid-way through the eleventh round after a barrage of punches from Margarito before taking a second knee moments later, forcing his corner to throw in the towel.
However, just as he was about to walk to the ring to face Shane Mosley in his next fight, Margarito was found to have plaster of Paris, a hard substance, in his hand-wraps. His hands were re-wrapped and he was duly stopped by Mosley in the ninth round. The year-old who first leapt into our consciousness during the Summer Olympics simply felt it was time to retire and announced his fight against Sadam Ali at Madison Square Garden would be his curtain call.
In doing so, he effectively already had one foot out of the ring before entering it for the final time on Saturday against an opponent most figured was handpicked for this glorified ceremony.
But the beauty of boxing is that it is an unforgiving extension of life where nothing is guaranteed. Cotto's final act -- a stunning unanimous decision loss to Ali -- wasn't as heartbreaking a result as it may seem on the surface. Cotto was ahead on two scorecards and tied on another one through eight rounds before he tore his left bicep and basically powered through the final four to five rounds, effectively with one arm, and lost each round on all scorecards leading to his final defeat.
While a win would have been nice storybook finish to Cotto's career, watching him power through the end of the fight with a torn left biceps may have been the most fitting end to one of the great warriors the sport has ever seen. Cotto left everything he had in the ring, and when it was over, he offered no excuses and allowed Ali to have his moment in the spotlight, exiting the ring and quietly going straight to the hospital; he quietly bypassed his final press conference.
I am good, and I want to be happy in my home with my family. Cotto was the pride of Puerto Rico during his career, but many of his greatest moments happened in New York. Cotto sold more fight tickets at the Garden than any other fighter in this millennium. He headlined 10 fights at the Garden, going , and also headlined the first boxing card at the new Yankee Stadium in He went 16 KOs in world title fights and is the only Puerto Rican male fighter to win world titles in four different weight classes.
Cotto's last fight started as most of them have during the course of his career. It began three hours before he actually stepped into the ring as he walked toward an empty row of ringside seats with his family and took in two rounds of the Ronny Rios-Deivis Julio fight.
While Cotto refused to get sentimental about his final fight before it happened, he must have had a different feeling as he looked around the iconic arena, which had served as the stage to so many of the biggest moments of his life.
De La Hoya and Hopkins knew their careers were over before stepping into the ring for the final time. Even in defeat, Cotto showed what a well-rounded fighter he is. UD 12 to Austin Trout, December 1, Trout was a young lion and Cotto a well-established superstar when the faced off in the Garden in December Trout fought the best fight of his career and handed Cotto a surprisingly decisive loss. Recent Posts.
When Cotto isn't confident, he won't execute the gameplan carefully and will get sloppy during tough times in wild exchanges. The Cotto that beat Margarito in the rematch was careful and far from sloppy.
Cotto is a great counter-puncher, as he demonstrated time and time again against Margarito. Pacquiao doesn't do so hot against counter-punchers, as he showed in his entire trilogy with Marquez. Marquez was a confident counter-puncher thanks to not only his experience, but his previous fights with Pacquiao. Cotto is now also confident in his ability to counter-punch. Cotto doesn't need to mix it up like he did the first time against Pacquiao, resulting in a mangled face and a knockdown.
A Cotto with renewed confidence will take his time and counter-punch Pacquiao all night long. Unless trainer Freddie Roach can teach his greatest pupil, Pacquiao, some new tricks in the next year or so, Pacquiao is likely to feel the pain and lose the fight. Cotto felt good playing keep-away with Margarito this time around.
He outboxed Margarito with a long jab and then backed off to stay out of a brawl. He didn't do that the first time around, and it cost him. He also didn't do that when he first faced Pacquiao. Pacquiao's speed and aggression brought about a sense of urgency to try to immediately fight back instead of get away, jab and keep his cool.
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